AgResearch (and friends) pour millions into upgrade

Andrew West welcomes cash for research - and to get staff out of porta-cabins. Picture / Greg Bowker

The ageing research facilities of Crown research institute AgResearch are in for a $100 million upgrade.

Chief executive Andrew West said it would be the biggest expansion in the institute's history and several big projects were planned for the next two to three years.

"This is a significant expansion to back the pastoral sector and provide areas of research capability that are needed for the future," he said.

"We're talking about major upgrades in Palmerston North, Invermay (near Dunedin) and Lincoln."

Some $17 million would be spent on the Invermay campus, with most of the money going towards a new centre for reproduction and mammalian genetics.

West said that project still needed final ministerial approval but planning was well advanced.

The $100 million figure also includes plans for the new national centre for biosecurity and infectious diseases at AgResearch's Wallaceville site in Upper Hutt, announced by the Government in August.

West is also optimistic that an "epigenetics" research centre will be built in Auckland with Auckland University and the Liggins Institute - but that was "still just a twinkle in the eye". Epigenetics is the study of how the genes are turned on and off.

Although the total cost of all the plans would be about $100 million, West said AgResearch would not directly contribute that much money because the projects had partners that would help with funding.

Massey University and MAF were involved in the National Centre for Biosecurity and Infectious Diseases in Wellington.

But AgResearch does plan to contribute a significant chunk of the funds and will not be seeking more cash from the Government.

West said the organisation had sold land at Wallaceville and had no debt. As a result, it would be raising debt "to a prudent level".

Some of the spending on new buildings was needed for safety and health reasons.

"We're just getting overcrowded," he said. "We've got lots of staff down at Lincoln working in porta-cabins."